AWS Certified Solutions Architect Study Guide. David Higby Clinton

how to choose a support plan. Understanding which support plan level is right for a particular customer is an important element in building a successful deployment. Become familiar with the various options.

      EXERCISE 1.1

      Use the AWS CLI

      Install (if necessary) and configure the AWS CLI on your local system and demonstrate it's running properly by listing the buckets that currently exist in your account. For extra practice, create an S3 bucket and then copy a simple file or document from your machine to your new bucket. From the browser console, confirm that the file reached its target.

      To get you started, here are some basic CLI commands:

      aws s3 ls aws s3 mb <bucketname> aws s3 cp /path/to/file.txt s3://bucketname

Review Questions

      1 Your developers want to run fully provisioned EC2 instances to support their application code deployments but prefer not to have to worry about manually configuring and launching the necessary infrastructure. Which of the following should they use?AWS LambdaAWS Elastic BeanstalkAmazon EC2 Auto ScalingAmazon Route 53

      2 Some of your application's end users are complaining of delays when accessing your resources from remote geographic locations. Which of these services would be the most likely to help reduce the delays?Amazon CloudFrontAmazon Route 53Elastic Load BalancingAmazon Glacier

      3 Which of the following is the best use‐case scenario for Elastic Block Store?You need a cheap and reliable place to store files your application can access.You need a safe place to store backup archives from your local servers.You need a source for on‐demand compute cycles to meet fluctuating demand for your application.You need persistent storage for the filesystem run by your EC2 instance.

      4 You need to integrate your company's local user access controls with some of your AWS resources. Which of the following can help you control the way your local users access your AWS services and administration console? (Choose two.)AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)Key Management Service (KMS)AWS Directory ServiceSimple WorkFlow (SWF)Amazon Cognito

      5 The data consumed by the application you're planning will require more speed and flexibility than you can get from a closely defined relational database structure. Which AWS database service should you choose?Relational Database Service (RDS)Amazon AuroraAmazon DynamoDBKey Management Service (KMS)

      6 You've launched an EC2 application server instance in the AWS Ireland region and you need to access it from the web. Which of the following is the correct endpoint address that you should use?compute.eu-central-1.amazonaws.comec2.eu-central-1.amazonaws.comelasticcomputecloud.eu-west-2.amazonaws.comec2.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com

      7 When working to set up your first AWS deployment, you keep coming across the term availability zone. What exactly is an availability zone?An isolated physical data center within an AWS regionA region containing multiple data centersA single network subnet used by resources within a single regionA single isolated server room within a data center

      8 As you plan your multi‐tiered, multi‐instance AWS application, you need a way to effectively organize your instances and configure their network connectivity and access control. Which tool will let you do that?Load BalancingAmazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)Amazon CloudFrontAWS endpoints

      9 You want to be sure that the application you're building using EC2 and S3 resources will be reliable enough to meet the regulatory standards required within your industry. What should you check?Historical uptime log recordsThe AWS Program Compliance ToolThe AWS service level agreement (SLA)The AWS Compliance Programs documentation pageThe AWS Shared Responsibility Model

      10 Your organization's operations team members need a way to access and administer your AWS infrastructure via your local command line or shell scripts. Which of the following tools will let them do that?AWS ConfigAWS CLIAWS SDKThe AWS Console

      11 While building a large AWS‐based application, your company has been facing configuration problems they can't solve on their own. As a result, they need direct access to AWS support for both development and IT team leaders. Which support plan should you purchase?BusinessDeveloperBasicEnterprise

Chapter 2 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Amazon Elastic Block Store

       THE AWS CERTIFIED SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT ASSOCIATE EXAM OBJECTIVES COVERED IN THIS CHAPTER MAY INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO, THE FOLLOWING:

       Domain 1: Design Resilient Architectures1.1 Design a multi‐tier architecture solution1.2 Design highly available and/or fault‐tolerant architectures1.4 Choose appropriate resilient storage

       Domain 2: Design High‐Performing Architectures2.1 Identify elastic and scalable compute solutions for a workload2.2 Select high‐performing and scalable storage solutions for a workload

       Domain 3: Design Secure Applications and Architectures3.1 Design secure access to AWS resources

       Domain 4: Design Cost‐Optimized Architectures4.1 Identify cost‐effective storage solutions4.2 Identify cost‐effective compute and database services4.3 Design cost‐optimized network architectures

Introduction

      The ultimate focus of a traditional data center/server room is its precious servers. But, to make those servers useful, you'll need to add racks, power supplies, cabling, switches, firewalls, and cooling.

      AWS's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is designed to replicate the data center/server room experience as closely as possible. At the center of it all is the EC2 virtual server, known as an instance. But, like the local server room I just described, EC2 provides a range of tools meant to support and enhance your instance's operations.

      This chapter will explore the tools and practices used to fully leverage the power of the EC2 ecosystem, including the following:

       Provisioning an EC2 instance with the right hardware resources for your project

       Configuring the right base operating system for your application needs

       Building a secure and effective network environment for your instance

       Adding scripts to run as the instance boots to support (or start) your application

       Choosing the best EC2 pricing model for your needs

       Understanding how to manage and leverage the EC2 instance lifecycle

       Choosing the right storage drive type for your needs

       Securing your EC2 resources using key pairs, security groups, network access lists, and Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles

       Scaling the number of instances up and down to meet changing demand using Auto Scaling

       Accessing your instance as an administrator or end‐user client

EC2 Instances

      An EC2 instance may only be a virtualized and abstracted subset of a physical server, but it behaves just like the real thing. It will have access to storage, memory, and a network interface, and its primary storage drive will come with a fresh and clean operating system running.

      It's up to you to decide what kind